g's house. He found the American Minister at home, and was
received with cordiality; but Mr. Spalding could tell him little or
nothing about Trevelyan. They went up to Mrs. Spalding's room, and
Hugh was told by her that she had seen Mrs. Trevelyan once since her
niece's marriage, and that then she had represented her husband as
being very feeble. Hugh, in the midst of his troubles, was amused
by a second and a third, perhaps by a fourth, reference to "Lady
Peterborough." Mrs. Spalding's latest tidings as to the Trevelyans
had been received through "Lady Peterborough" from Nora Rowley. "Lady
Peterborough" was at the present moment at Naples, but was expected
to pass north through Florence in a day or two. They, the Spaldings
themselves, were kept in Florence in this very hot weather by this
circumstance. They were going up to the Tyrolese mountains for a
few weeks as soon as "Lady Peterborough" should have left them for
England. "Lady Peterborough" would have been so happy to make Mr.
Stanbury's acquaintance, and to have heard something direct from
her friend Nora. Then Mrs. Spalding smiled archly, showing thereby
that she knew all about Hugh Stanbury and his relation to Nora
Rowley. From all which, and in accordance with the teaching which
we got,--alas, now many years ago,--from a great master on the
subject, we must conclude that poor, dear Mrs. Spalding was a snob.
Nevertheless, with all deference to the memory of that great master,
we think that Mrs. Spalding's allusions to the success in life
achieved by her niece were natural and altogether pardonable; and
that reticence on the subject,--a calculated determination to
abstain from mentioning a triumph which must have been very dear to
her,--would have betrayed on the whole a condition of mind lower than
that which she exhibited. While rank, wealth, and money are held to
be good things by all around us, let them be acknowledged as such. It
is natural that a mother should be as proud when her daughter marries
an Earl's heir as when her son becomes Senior Wrangler; and when we
meet a lady in Mrs. Spalding's condition who purposely abstains from
mentioning the name of her titled daughter, we shall be disposed to
judge harshly of the secret workings of that lady's thoughts on the
subject. We prefer the exhibition, which we feel to be natural. Mr.
Spalding got our friend by the button-hole, and was making him a
speech on the perilous condition in which Mrs. Trevelyan was